Tag: Charlottesville

The horrible events in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday have ripped open the scab that once rested atop the wound of racism in our country. And who poured rubbing alcohol into that wound to make it sting even more?

The president, the very person who is supposed to bring our nation together to heal.

A leader does not come out for a contentious press conference and put more blame on human rights protesters than on white supremacists and neo-Nazis, one of whom plowed into a crowd of people with his car, killing one and injuring dozens.

A leader does not equate Robert E. Lee with George Washington. One is the father of our country. The other? The military leader of the Confederacy who sought to destroy the Union that Washington, Jefferson, and the other founders created. Some parts of history should be left in books and museums where future generations can study them so they’re not repeated, not on pedestals to be venerated.

A leader does not yell, “Fake news,” to shout down members of the press who are competently doing their jobs, jobs that are protected by the Constitution. Journalists work hard to maintain a high position of responsibility in our democracy, namely to illuminate those in power to keep our government transparent and honest.

We must keep resisting, my friends. Trump’s America is not our America. Our country and its allies already defeated Nazism in World War II. Slavery and the Jim Crow system of civil laws have been abolished. The job of a president is to take the country forward, not backward.

There are only two sides to this — either you believe everyone deserves to be treated equally or you don’t.

It’s that simple.

Those who don’t believe everyone deserves basic human rights should be called what they are — racist bigots.

And that includes the president.

ACE Communications Team Leader Karen Berner has been a professional writer/editor for more than 30 years. An award-winning journalist, her work has appeared in several magazines, newspapers, and blogs, including the Chicago Tribune, Writer Unboxed, Women’s Fiction Writers, Naperville Magazine, and Fresh Fiction. She also is the author of three contemporary women’s fiction novels and is a member of the Chicago Writers’ Association.